Degrassi Undead
by Graver7
Summary: The city has been taken over by the walking dead. Can the kids of Degrassi make it out alive with the help of an intriguing and deadly stranger? Can't see how I can possibly finish it but I'd like to know what you guys think.


DEGRASSI UNDEAD

Mia's mind was only on Isabelle as she turned the handle and ripped open the door to her apartment building, only to find herself face to face with one of the gray-eyed monstrosities. Pale flesh peeled from its hideously rotted face as it opened its mouth and let out a hungry growl. She backed away slowly as its outstretched arms reached for her.

She screamed.

"Get back!" Rafe said as he grabbed her shoulder and pulled her out of the doorway. He then took two steps back and raised his silenced L96A1 sniper rifle and fired. The whisper quiet shot hit the thing in the center of its forehead, splitting its skull open and sending chunks of skull and brain splattering onto the walls.

"Shit." Rafe said after the body slumped to the ground. He exhaled in relief and cycled the bolt, ejecting the spent shell and ramming home a new one. The empty brass casing twirled through the air and chimed when it hit the pavement. To Mia, the sound was as loud as thunder.

"Don't open any more doors until I'm ready, all right?"

"Whoa." Holly J said from behind them. "That was entirely too close for comfort."

A tear streamed down Mia's face.

Rafe stepped forward. "Did you know him?"

"I…I think that was Mr. Thomas. He lived two doors down."

"Hey," Rafe said, placing a hand on her shoulder. "You're fine. Stay strong for your daughter."

Mia knew he was right. She took two deep breaths and steadied herself.

She nodded and said, "I just want to get to her."

"We are, but we've got to be careful." Rafe told her as leaned his rifle against the side of his car, a black 1970 Dodge Challenger. He walked to the doorway and grabbed Mr. Thomas's feet.

"What _are_ you doing?" Holly J questioned.

"The kid shouldn't have to see this." He said and started dragging the corpse out of the doorway.

"Darcy," he said as he pulled, "can you grab the UMP out of the bag in the backseat of my car?"

"I don't know what that is." Replied Darcy.

"It's a blocky looking submachine gun. It's got a silencer and a red dot sight on top."

"This is Canada, dude." Holly J said. "She doesn't--"

"I got it." Jane interrupted, reaching into the backseat and producing his weapon.

"Thanks. You guys stay here. We'll be back in a minute." He said, taking the gun from her and checking the magazine. He made sure it was on single fire, then slipped the sling over his arm and neck and secured it.

"Okay," he said, shouldering the UMP. He looked to Mia. "Stay behind me, watch our backs, and try not to scream. Let's go."

They entered the main hall of the building. Thankfully, several of the doors were closed so Rafe didn't have to clear every one of them, though he would before they left to make sure they didn't leave behind any survivors. Still, they made they're way slowly. Each doorway they checked was a screen to a scene of gore and destruction. Furniture lay strewn about everywhere and smears of blood decorated the walls .

"How does something like this happen?" Mia asked, referring to the destruction to which they were currently baring witness.

"It happens easier--and faster--than you'd think. Somebody gets bitten, thinks it isn't bad enough to go to the hospital. They come home to their family and clean it up, only to realize in about an hour or two they've made a terrible mistake. Not long after that they die and rise as one of those things. They turn on everyone around them, and the cycle begins all over again."

"I just can't believe we didn't catch and do something about it before it came to this."

"Yeah, well, human beings are renowned for our ability to screw things up."

They turned a corner at the end of the hall near the stairway to find another one of the undead with its head buried in the stomach of one of its victims, feasting upon the cold entrails within.

Mia gasped, and the ghoul lifted its blood drenched face from the gaping hole and moaned its never ending need for flesh. She pressed herself close to Rafe's back as he sighted down the gun and blew the thing's brains out. Almost instantly the corpse upon which it was feeding began to rise, but before it could get to its feet Rafe delivered it to the same fate.

"Oh my God." Mia said, closing her eyes tightly. She didn't want to see this terror anymore. "I can't stand this."

Rafe watched the slightest tendril of blue-gray smoke drift out of the end of the silencer. "It gets easier," he told her, unconvincing even to himself. "Let's keep moving."

And they did. They topped the flight of stairs and, much to their relief, found no further evidence of apocalypse. The second floor appeared to be free of carnage but was, once again, silent.

Rafe didn't like it.

"Call to them." He told Mia.

"Isabelle!" She called out. "Mom! Bella!"

They were answered only by the unrelenting quiet.

"Damn."

"What?" Asked Mia.

Rafe was unsure of what to say to her. "Maybe," he started, "maybe you should stay out here. Let me find them."

"I'm getting my daughter." She said, defiantly.

He knew that to press the issue would just be a waste of time, so he acquiesced and they continued on. For the first time since the madness had begun he found himself praying. Not for his own life, but for the life of the girl's family. She didn't deserve to be in the middle of this, none of them did. And even if it killed him he was going to see that they at least had the chance to make it out.

Halfway down the hall to her apartment they heard a scratching sound, like someone crawling.

"Bella?" Mia said as she dashed out from behind Rafe.

"Mia! No, wait!" He tried to stop her, but with a complete disregard for her own life she flung open the door to her apartment and stepped inside.

"_Noo!" _She screamed.

He heard her shriek just as he reached the door. He grabbed the material of her sleeve and pulled her out of the way as he scanned the room for the threat. He swept the silenced barrel left and right and his brain didn't quite understand when he didn't find anything, he was stuck in combat mode. It wasn't until he heard her crying that he finally snapped out of it. When he looked back he saw her leaning against the door, her face in her hands.

Fearing the worst, he turned to find the source of the girl's despair.

"Mia," he said. "I'm sorry."

A heavy bookcase had fallen on her mother's legs, pinning the woman down. Now, she sat up scratching at the wood, trying to reach them. Her eyes were gray and lifeless, yet filled with that malicious sentience that powered the undead in their quest for meat. She had been performing the motion long before they'd arrived, and her fingertips had been worn down to the bare, bloody bone.

The rest of the apartment seemed relatively untouched except for a rather large portion of blood on the couch. It was impossible to know what had happened, but Rafe new for sure things weren't going to get any better for Mia. He stepped close to her, tearing his eyes away from the girl's mother.

She sneered and growled at them from the floor, the lower half of her face crusted over with congealed blood. She had bitten someone.

"Mia, let's get out of here."

"No! No, I have to get Bella."

"She's not here, let's go."

"No. Bella!" Mia yelled through her tears. "Isabelle!"

She tried to move away from him but he grabbed her roughly by the arm and pushed her against the door. "_Damn it, stop!_ Now listen to me. You can look through these rooms and find something that you _really_ don't want to see, or we can get back to the group and get the hell out of this city!"

"I can't. I can't leave. Mom, Isabelle." Mia sobbed.

Rafe sighed. He had hoped with everything he had that this wouldn't happen, but now this poor lovely girl before him was broken and the next step was crucial.

"Do you want me to end it?" He asked.

She raised her head and blinked away tears. "What?"

"Do you want to die?"

"I…I…"

"You've lost everything. I understand that. They're gone and you'll never stop missing them, but you have a chance to go on now. They don't have a choice anymore. You do, but you can't walk out of this building without hope because if you decide later that you don't want to go on, you'll endanger not only my life but the lives of every one of your friends. I'm so sorry for what's happened, but the bottom line is that _you're_ still alive and breathing. If you truly don't want to go I'll do it for you. It'll be quick and painless. But if you want to live, if you want to keep going, it's not selfish I promise you. They would want you to live on, you know that."

They stood there for several moments. She looked deep into his eyes, knowing that every word he spoke, though straightforward, was full of compassion and truth. She did want to live on. She didn't want to die and rot away.

"I…we can't leave her like this." She whispered, barely able to find her voice.

He backed away, relieved that she had come to her senses. More relieved than he'd thought he'd be, in fact. That thought unsettled him.

He motioned to the doorway. "Wait outside. I'll go through the rest of the apartment. Is there anything you want me to get?"

She took two steps in grabbed something off of the coffee table. A portrait she had taken with her mother and daughter. She held it to her chest and said, "No, there's nothing else I need."

She went into the hallway and slid down the wall to the floor, unable to stop the outpouring of tears. A few seconds later she heard the dry snap of Rafe's weapon. She new her mother was now at peace, but still her sobs intensified as the pain of loneliness swept through her.

Eventually the tears ceased, and she sat in silence until Rafe reappeared in the doorway. She rose from the ground as he exited the apartment.

"I want to say goodbye to Isabelle." She told him.

He had an unexplainable look on his face, "I don't want you to get your hopes up, but I have to tell you."

"What are you talking about?" She asked, utterly confused.

"Mia, Isabelle's not in there."

"Wha--are you sure?"

"I checked everywhere, and I mean _everywhere. _I opened up the cabinets in the kitchen, I checked under the beds. I looked in the damn crawlspace above your closet. She's not here, but I found this."

He handed her a small slip of paper with the word DOWNTOWN written in blue ink.

"I found it on her bed. I'm just guessing, but I don't think she wrote it." He said. He remembered she was only a couple of years old, not yet writing.

"Downtown? Downtown Toronto?"

"I don't know, but we've got to get out of here. The others are probably wondering what happened to us. Come on, let's go."

Mia followed him as he led the way out, and though her heart was broken she couldn't ignore the tiny light that still flickered deep inside.

Hope.


End file.
